A 39 year old man is accused of stabbing a moviegoer in the neck with a meat thermometer has been charged with attempted murder and other counts. The victim enraged the man by talking on a cell phone during a showing of Shutter Island at a theater in Lancaster, California north of LA.

He and another man left returning later armed with the meat thermometer and attacked the woman.

The charges include special allegations that the defendant personally inflicted great bodily injury on the victim, that the injury caused the victim to become comatose due to a brain injury or to suffer paralysis and that the defendant used a deadly and dangerous weapon, a meat thermometer.

He has been charged with attempted willful, deliberate, premeditated murder, two counts of assault with a deadly weapon; and one count of possession of a firearm by a felon.

The victim was hospitalized with serious injuries.

The assailant has prior felony convictions, one from 2007 and one from 2000 for possession of a firearm by a felony, a 1995 drug sales conviction and a 1990 robbery conviction.

He is being held in lieu of $1 million bail. If convicted as charged, he faces a potential life term in prison.